Photographs and videos are commonly used to capture the memories of the events in one's life. The collection and storage of such items is necessary for viewing and sharing of the memories captured in the photographs and videos. Traditional systems and methods of organizing and collecting photos involve a time-intensive process of collecting and organizing developed prints and manually placing them into photo albums. In the wake of advancing photographic technology, digital cameras and readers have been introduced and have digitized the photographic standard. As a result, advanced systems and methods of photograph and video organization have developed.
One such organization and collection method allows digital photographs to be sorted, organized, and arranged via a personal computer. The personal computer contains a communication link to either a photo organization program or a website offering photo organization services. Upon organizing and arranging digital photographs, the individual photographs or sheets of organized photos may be printed by either a home printer or an online photo finishing provider. This method successfully preserves and displays the visual images depicted in basic photographs.
However, the digital cameras of today, unlike the early predecessors, are able to capture sound and video as well as photographs. Storage of related audio and video files is not conducive to the traditional methods of storing still photographic prints. Conventional systems and methods of storing and organizing photographs display and print the visual images depicted in photographs or individual video frames and discards the related video and audio files.
Photo display frames have been developed, which incorporate an audio system into a frame. The audio system allows messages to be recorded to a microprocessor included in the frame and played back at a subsequent time. Although this system of photograph display allows integrated storage and playback of audio files in conjunction with viewing the still photographs, each audio file must be manually recorded into the frame. Furthermore, only a limited number of files can be recorded onto the frame microprocessor. Each time the pictures in the frame are changed, new files must be recorded and the old audio files are discarded. As a result, the audio photo display frame does not allow direct upload of previously captured audio files and it is not conducive for use with large or multiple photo books. Moreover, the audio photo display frame is not capable of storing and playing video files related to the photographic image displayed.
The deficiencies of the above described photograph storage and organization systems and methods are frustrating to users who commonly want to review and share their organized photographs in conjunction with the corresponding audio and video files. Therefore, for the reasons stated above and for reasons presented in greater detail in the Description of the Preferred Embodiment section of the present specification, a need exists for a photo book system in which the audio and video files corresponding to photographs or individual video frames can be conveniently accessed and played back while the still photographs are being viewed.